It’s dead easy to list the most obvious influences of Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub. He’s read them so often, founding band member Norman Blake can rattle them off at the drop of a tam: Big Star, Byrds, Beach Boys. Pigeonholing the Fanclub’s melodic-yet-rocking sound becomes a little more dicey. Though most of the cornerstones of power pop—Posies, Flamin’ Groovies, Matthew Sweet, Velvet Crush, Tommy Keene, Alex Chilton—don’t think much of the label, it seems to be the only one that’s stuck. If they keep this up for another five years or so, Teenage Fanclub, which opened for business in the mid-’80s when Blake met fellow Scots Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love, might surpass the Groovies for career longevity, a career award that usually precedes only the obit in a band’s publicity dossier. And yet, the group’s new album, Shadows (Merge), is as vital as anything TFC has ever cut, adding fuel to the proposition that some artists come up with their best work after turning 40. Blake and Love will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with Blake.
Gerard: The Ascent Of Man was a groundbreaking television series produced by the BBC in the early 1970s exploring the cultural development of humanity in relation to scientific breakthrough. Commissioned by Sir David Attenborough and beautifully shot on 16mm film, this no-expense-spared, 13-part series is a perfect example of the golden age of state broadcasting in the U.K. where the emphasis was on the need to inform and educate the people as well as to entertain the masses. How things have changed! It was written and presented by the completely cool Dr. Jacob Bronowski, and it leads us through the defining moments of humanity. “Man’s imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it. And that series of inventions, by which man from age to age has remade his environment, is a different kind of evolution—not biological, but cultured evolution. I call that brilliant series of cultural peaks The Ascent Of Man.” This is a must-see for anyone remotely interested in anything. Highly recommended for anthropological stoners and academics everywhere.
Videos after the jump.
Part 1: Lower Than The Angels
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-63398489326170915#[/googlevideo]
Part 2: The Harvest Of The Seasons
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6017537172099430144#[/googlevideo]
Part 3: The Hidden Structure
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7409122292988346810#[/googlevideo]
Part 4: Music Of The Spheres
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1980180351354876889#[/googlevideo]
Part 5: The Starry Messenger
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7838130208758297120#[/googlevideo]
Part 6: The Majestic Clockwork
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2816401976009672679#[/googlevideo]
Part 7: The Drive For Power
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6183652003808212138#[/googlevideo]
Part 8: The Ladder Of Creation
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=886526736948299452#[/googlevideo]
Part 9: The Grain In The Stone
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8333129745332493761#[/googlevideo]
Part 10: World Within World
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1503025013030657386#[/googlevideo]
Part 11: Knowledge Or Certainty
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8703061764104921754#[/googlevideo]
Part 12: Generation Upon Generation
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3806981741878036298#[/googlevideo]
Part 13: The Long Childhood
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1300915142935623405[/googlevideo]
